Here are some stats on crime in the two Canadian cities of Winnipeg, Manitoba and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The differences are quite stark. Winnipeg is a much more violent city. To be fair, the Winnipeg metro area has over double the population of the Halifax metro area.

I was in Halifax over a year ago and I was struck by the civility of the downtown area. There were hundreds of students (Halifax is a big university town), also hundreds of tourists from the cruise ships that dock in Halifax harbour, and the remainder of the people on the streets were office workers. No drunken decrepid vagrants that litter the downtown of Winnipeg. In Halifax there were no street patrol security guards. In Winnipeg there are dozens of these guards that patrol the downtown streets desperately trying to keep the aggressive panhandlers and inebriated obnoxious bums at bay.

Walking in downtown Halifax was like walking in Disneyland. Walking in downtown Winnipeg, most of the time, is like walking in a unpredictible potential danger zone with threats lurking in the shadows. Again to be fair, downtown Winnipeg is huge, and there are areas that are quite safe, while on the other hand there are areas where you travel on foot, especially after dark, at your own peril.

In terms of demographics Halifax does not have the vast Aboriginal ghettos that Winnipeg has. Most of the violent crime occurs in these areas. Over eighty percent of the homicides in Winnipeg are committed by Aboriginals against Aboriginals. For some unexplained reason, violence is a terrible but ubiquitous part of contemporary Aboriginal life in Manitoba. In all major North American cities it is disenfranchised minority groups that contribute to most crime. This is not politically correct, but this is a fact. Getting into the philosophy and sociology of why this is would take a book.

When I was in Halifax my friends admitted that there were areas of the city where one did not tread alone at night, there absolutely are Danger Zones they said. But in Winnipeg there are areas where one does not venture by himself in the middle of a sunny day.

2 responses to “Winnipeg and Halifax comparative crime statistics”

Good article, Mark. Two areas where I take classes are sketchy at night in Halifax – near Citadel Hill and the Commons, and Bloomfield Centre, between Robie and Agricola. I’ve been near Citadel Hill after dark, and felt no danger, but you never know! I wouldn’t be at Bloomfield Centre after dark. I’ve waited for buses after dark in Halifax and felt safe. Its scary to be at the Graham bus mall after dark in Winnipeg, and I stopped doing that! When I lived in Winnipeg, by nightfall I was behind my locked apartment door, and there I stayed till daylight!

Halifax is a port city, and by definition they’re supposed to be dangerous places, and at one time, especially the dock area was dangerous. In the 1970’s they cleaned up that area, and now its the place to walk, any time of day, and it “feels” safe, and is.

Despite what the idiots running City Hall say, crime in Winnipeg is out of control. Knife attacks, shootings, robberies, home invasions etc. etc. are a daily occurrence now, and don’t even rate as ‘news’ any more. Everyone knows the demographic responsible for the vast majority of trouble, but heaven forbid you say anything and get called ‘racist’. I want to move the hell out of this ‘Hellhole’ (as Rob Lowe is credited for calling it), and Halifax has been on my radar for a while. Just hope I don’t make a mistake and end up some place worse.